Few outsiders will ever witness the dark misdeeds of the Heavenly Host. And among this secret society, where exiled Georgian aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal desires, fewer still can match the insatiable appetite of their chief provocateur, the mysterious Viscount Rohan.
Pursuit of physical pleasure is both his preferred pastime and his most pressing urge, until he encounters the fascination of a woman who won’t be swayed. And while his dark seduction appalls the pure and impoverished Elinor Harriman, she finds herself intrigued…and secretly drawn to the man behind the desire.
In May the TBR Challenge theme is "an author who has more than one book in the TBR". I would say Anne Stuart fits the bill quite nicely with more than a dozen books in my TBR pile.
I had heard a few comments about Ruthless. Mostly about how the hero was a bad boy - a trademark of Anne Stuart - and how the sex was almost forced on the heroine.
I have to say that I did enjoy reading it and while I did find the first sex scene a bit violent (not physically violent btw) the rest just felt like your usual Stuart darkness and I was glued to the pages. I think that there is nothing particularly original here. If you've read To Love a Dark Lord you know what is going to happen and you can even take a good guess on how we are going to get to the happy ending. But it's really nice to read an author that knows how to write a good story and keep you interested in turning the pages the way Ms Stuart does.
Rohan can't help himself and as soon as he sees Elinor and talks to her he is totally captivated and wants to spend more and more time with her (not that he would put things this way...). Elinor is at first repulsed and then attracted to him. They both have plenty of tradegy in their pasts and have to deal with it as best they can, hurting each other along the way, before they reach their HEA.
As usual Stuart inserts a secondary romance. I wouldn't have minded to see those two spend more time with each other before falling head over heels in love but it was still a nice one. Elinor's sister does start as too perfect to be true but she does get better as things go by.
I am curious about the next books in this series but mainly because I am such an Anne Stuart fan. I have to admit that I don't expect much in terms of an original plot and am thinking I am going to get a variation of this one in the other books. Do correct me if I'm wrong, will you?
Grade: 4/5
You're not wrong. :-( I liked Reckless quite a bit on first read, but when I reread it after reading this one, the similarities were annoying. And there's a plot point I found upsetting, because the happy ending was not sacrosant.
ReplyDeleteThe third book is rather different and certainly interesting, though a bit much for many readers. Seriously dark hero!
I just finished Reckell Willaful, just couldn't resist grabbing it next. I did enjoy it but it seemed that the h/h attraction was all based in sex... You make me want to pick up book 3 ;-)
DeleteI tend to label books/authors like this as "comfort reads." You know exactly what you're going to get, and the author's "tells" can be spotted miles away. But they also tend to be books/authors that I can just sink into. Shut off my brain, tune out the real world, for a few moments of enjoyable peace and quiet :)
ReplyDeleteThat's is so true Wendy. Anne Stuart is definetely a comfort read!
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